A feminist film-maker has been criticised for deciding to make a documentary about men’s rights activists that takes “a balanced approach”. Cassie Jaye, who has previously directed documentaries about sex education and gay marriage, endured problems with funding and a backlash from other feminists after announcing The Red Pill.

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“We weren’t finding executive producers who wanted to take a balanced approach, we found people who wanted to make a feminist film,” she told the website Breitbart. “I started to see the bias towards women’s films and against men’s. There are no categories for men’s films [when applying for grants], though there are several for women and minorities. I submitted the film to human rights categories, and was rejected by all of them.”

After funding was pulled, Jaye turned to Kickstarter where she has raised almost $204,000, more than double her target of $97,000.

Jaye initially planned to profile the men’s rights movement from a feminist point of view, but found her beliefs changing while filming the documentary. The Kickstarter page promises the film will document “a life-altering journey where she would never see the world the same way again”.

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Her current stance has upset many feminists. In particular, she has been involved in a public spat with David Futrelle, who runs a website called We Hunted the Mammoth with the aim of exposing misogyny. “The clips of your film that you’ve posted online so far look a lot more like propaganda than they do like any sort of honest look at the men’s rights movement,” Futrelle wrote in an open letter to Jaye. He also accused her of “shameful pandering”.

“This film is an explorative documentary,” the Kickstarter page reads. “The viewer is lead down the rabbit hole of gender politics by a young feminist who is curious about the men’s rights movement and is willing to listen and wants to understand everything they have to say.”